Giant of the Senate

I listened to Al Franken's memoir about his election to the Senate and his career thus far. He spends a small part of the book discussing his 35 year career as a writer in Hollywood. I didn't know he was one of the original writers from the first season of SNL. He worked there into the '90s. His work for progressive politics began when he started as a host on Air America as well as the books he wrote about Rush Limbaugh and conservative media.

The book is funny, entertaining, serious, informative, and sprinkled with hope and despair. It ends just after Trump's inauguration. Franken reads the book and I feel like this makes the story even better.. like so many book written by celebrities. My favorite of these was listening to Amy Poehler read 'Yes Please'. The audio productions are unique.

Inspiring story.

Central California coast

I do not often rave about family vacations. In my experience, they can be fun but are almost always tiring. I am pleased to report an excellent and restful family vacation was had by all when we visited Ryan's family in California.

We visited a beautiful beach every day. The kids played happily and were in good moods almost the entire time. My theory is that kids are happiest when they play independently outside all day every day which is what they did on our vacay. Ryan was happy because he went to the ocean every day. I was happy not to manage the unhappiness of the members of my family. Everybody wins.

On our way to 4th of July fireworks, we walked along a bluff seemingly followed by an enormous whale (as opposed to the tiny whales?) who was swimming near the shore. The sun was setting. It was beautiful.

We ate good food. We enjoyed seeing Ryan's family. Ryan's dad took the kids fishing at a local pier. He has a metal detector and the kids were thrilled to hunt for treasure. Ryan's parents have dogs and Sonia was so happy to play with them. All good things.

The Princess Bride

I thought this would be a good book to read to the kids. I started reading it and decided it wasn't.

I love the book because of the style in which William Goldman writes. He is irreverent, self-deprecating and genuine especially for someone who experienced so much success. The story is fun .. adventure, intrigue, suspense, love.. but in the end, I don't want to read it to my kids because the female character, Buttercup, is a total dud. I can afford to be selective about my female heroines because there are many great ones out there.  Buttercup of the book is weak-willed and rather dull especially compared to all the other great characters in the book -- all men. Fun beach read though.

Girl Interrupted

I often check out books that my local librarians display at the front of our library. The theme last month was books that had been made into movies and Girl Interrupted was featured with it's accompanying DVD.

The book was a bestseller and I understand why. For such a depressing topic, an 18 year old girl is institutionalized for 2 years, it's oddly funny. Years ago, I heard a American buddhist monk speak about a job he had at a psychiatric hospital. He said at the end of 5 years of work, he knew the only difference between him and the patients was that he had the keys. Susanna is hospitalized in the late '60's but it isn't clear that she is insane. She isn't sure either. Her values were very different from her ivy-league educated, conservative parents but was that mental illness? Where is the line between misery and clinical depression? Who decides you've crossed it?

A great memoir.